Photos Library on Mac: Backup, Merge, and Recover
I have rescued tens of thousands of photos from corrupted libraries. Here's how to never need rescuing.
Your Photos library is a package — a folder pretending to be a file. It lives in Pictures by default. Right-click and Show Package Contents if you ever need to see inside, but otherwise leave it alone.
The library should be backed up by Time Machine automatically. Verify this. Open Time Machine, browse into Pictures, confirm you see your library snapshot. Don't assume.
If you have multiple libraries from old Macs, merging them is possible but tricky. There are paid tools like PowerPhotos that do it cleanly. The free path is to import one library into another inside Photos itself, but it's slow and easy to duplicate.
If a library is corrupted, hold Option and Command while opening Photos to access the Repair Library tool. It often works on the first try. If it doesn't, stop opening the library and call someone. Repeated failed opens make recovery harder.
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